The Barnyard Bash
Our darling, sweet, angel of a child turned one. ONE! We’ve officially been graced by her presence for a full year already and truly so much has happened I can hardly keep up. In order to celebrate the first year of her life we had a few things lined up.
The first, on her actual birthday we decided we would commemorate her entrance into this world a year ago by planting a tree. Jaken found some fruit trees that looked fantastic at the Home Depot so he snatched up a few and brought them home. We felt the mandarin orange tree would be the best to plant as the others were an avocado tree and then a dual planter with a Meyer lemon tree and orange tree. Once we all got home for the day we called over The Wood crew and Jaken got to digging. We decided to plant the tree near the garden so we could maintain a good watering schedule and would one day like to have a small orchard situation up there. Jaken got the hole dug and we placed the tree I the ground. We attempted to teach Hope to toss the dirt in to cover it but she didn’t quite understand and instead decided to just toss it around elsewhere which was still cute.
Once the tree was planted we went up to the house for her cake and birthday song. I didn’t have any large cake options so we had recently purchased some of the microwavable mug cake mixes so I whipped her up a chocolate brownie mug cake and managed to get it out of the mug and on a plate. Kristen had a candle she brought over and we all sang Happy Birthday before Hope got busy eating her cake. She loved it of course and who wouldn’t? Then Kristen and Steven had brought over their gift to Hope. A small trampoline with netting around the edges to keep the babies from falling off and protective cushioning for the springs. The boiys spent the next couple hours building the trampoline while us ladies sat on the sidelines watching and giving suggestions and the children frolicked. Once it was done the babies played on it for a bit and then everyone turned in for the night.
A few days later and it was Friday. Kristen and I loaded up and hit the town to get the shopping done for Hope’s party the next day. We started at The Toasted Yolk because breakfast, duh, most important meal of the day. Then headed to the Woodlands to pick up the seedeater and leaf blower for Jaken. Next we went and got mani-pedis, super productive shopping trip so far (LOL) but necessary to our well being and then we hit the motherland, Sam’s Club. Where else could you possibly find 50 burgers and their accommodations, a billion cupcakes, sodas galore, and some bouquets of wildflowers and sunflowers. After an hour or so there and a unfortunate amount of money spent we loaded all our goodies into the car and headed for HEB. At HEB we got all the things that we didn’t need a thousand of and then headed home. When we arrived Grandpa and Grandma Herman were at the house and had brought their canopies and tables for the party. We visited a bit before they left and our buddy Josh rolled in. He came in early to help us with the preparations.
Saturday morning came and party preparations were in full swing. Hope’s cake went in the oven baking away and the boys headed out to get horseshoes and take the trash o the dump. Jaken’s mom and stepdad came over and brought their tables, chairs, and party supplies and stared helping me set everything up. Of course once we got everything nicely out on the tables and decorated it threatened to rain with some pretty ominous thunderclaps and dark clouds. About thirty minutes before the party the looming rain clouds delivered and it poured up until the guests started arriving. Everything not under the canopies was drenched but then the sun came out and started to dry everything up.
Jaken grilled burgers and hot dogs with the help of some family and friends. Hope received a ton of adorable outfits and presents as well as a mini John Deere tractor to ride around. She borderline refuses to get off of it now. The family all rode their four-wheelers around the property, Hope ate her birthday cake just as adorably as expected, lots of good conversations were had, and we got to reconnect with good friends from high school that also moved back to the prairie. All in all it was a very successful celebration of Hope’s first year of life and we continued on late into the evening hours. We are so lucky to have been blessed with our little ray of Hope and are loving getting to watch her blossom into the little sunflower she is.
